4 things we like about Lily Allen’s new video, and 4 things we don’t

Hooray, Lily Allen’s back! She’s looking fierce, her nails are well peng, and the video for her new song, Hard Out Here, is stuffed full of swag and satire. Swagtire, if you will.

So what’s this one about? Well, it’s not about smiling, or how her brother is a puppet, and it’s not written by Keane. Hard Out Here is a sharply satirical statement about the objectification of women in pop.

And it begins with Our Lily tiring of her agent telling her she’s “let herself go” after having two babies, and performing a very decent slut-drop in protest:

Bits we like…

1. This satifying liposuction squirt:

2. Lily’s scumbag agent teaching her how to twerk:

3. And fellate a banana:

4. And this tremendous Robin Thicke-bait:

Bits we’re not so hot on…

1. This inexplicable spot of product placement:

2. The fact that we originally thought this pink-haired lady was the actress Rebel Wilson, but then it turned out she wasn’t Rebel Wilson, and now we’re a bit embarrassed:

3. Satirising media that objectifies women by objectifying women while singing about women being objectified in the media a) makes our heads hurt when we think about it and b) doesn’t seem completely legit:

4. Particularly when it features shots that are so hypnotically slow-motion that it looks like someone juggling a bag of kittens:

In fact, we think that Lily Allen could have brought that point home better by involving the chaps from the ‘Choo choo choo’ advert for TheTrainline.com: